West Bend, WI – There have been a lot of recollections about the impact Brewers announcer Bob Uecker had on their lives. It was Thursday, January 16, 2025 when word spread about his death.
I was sitting with local baseball great Doug Gonring at Omicron when he told me of Uecker’s passing. The news hadn’t even hit the media yet.
We swapped stories and I remembered my days working at WISN radio in the late 1990’s stringing for ESPN radio and covering the Brewers when Bob Uecker made my day.
Milwaukee County Stadium had an outdoor seating area in front of the press box. It was a metal loge and it was hot and your scorecard could blow away in the wind if you didn’t weigh it down. You also took your life in your own hands if you sat there because foul balls would scream past your head.
It was very regular. Everyone would duck and you’d hear two familiar thuds as the ball hit the back of the press box and then the metal floor.
It was a swealtery day and Uecker was inside right above me calling the game. You could hear him clear as a bell.
It was my grandfather’s birthday and I scribbled a note asking Uecker if he could wish Monroe Johnson of Gays Mills, WI a happy 90th birthday.
I remembered debating whether I should bother him but gathered some bravery, stood up and sneaked the paper over the edge of his desk.
If he said it once he said it five times. “Monroe Johnson…” he said so upbeat. Like he had known him forever.
I didn’t realize the impact of the announcement until I visited Gays later that summer.
My grandfather was a dedicated Brewers fan… and Cubs and Twins. Whatever game he could pick up on his little transistor radio.
He’d sit on a very hard brown couch in the laundry room, across from the wringer washer, in their small farm house and listen to the game. He’d tamp his wooden cane on the floor now and then and sometimes hum … it was his rhythm during intermission.
When Uecker announced his birthday my grandpa heard it. All five times.
My grandfather told me that story over and over and always with a wide grinned. Like, dagnabbit… he just couldn’t believe it. He was just so genuinely happy to hear his name on the AM radio.
For just a short time there, Bob Uecker made 90-year-old Monroe Johnson, Gays Mills famous.
I will never forget that kindness. Bob Uecker was legend.
